Rishi Sunak warned he risks new Tory ‘civil war’ over Brexit as he prepares to unveil his Northern Ireland deal with Brussels even without eurosceptic support as he tells them it will ‘get the job done’
- Mr Sunak will invite Cabinet ministers into No 10 on Sunday to brief them
- PM was accused of entangling the King in toxic Brexit politics via EU tour
Rishi Sunak has been warned he risks fanning the flames of a Tory civil war over Brexit if he pushes through a Northern Ireland deal with the EU.
The Prime Minister today signalled his intention to approve the agreement hammered out with Brussels as soon as Monday, despite furious opposition from Tory eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party.
He insisted that the agreement would work for the whole UK and warned opponents – who include former PM Boris Johnson – to put peace in Northern Ireland above their personal ambitions.
In words that could be seen as a snub to Mr Johnson, who campaigned for the 2019 election under the slogan ‘get Brexit done’, Mr Sunak today told the Sunday Times: ‘There’s unfinished business on Brexit and I want to get the job done.’
Last week, Mr Johnson warned Mr Sunak it would be a ‘great mistake’ to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
Mr Sunak will invite Cabinet ministers into No 10 on Sunday to brief them on the details of what he has secured so far.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab today told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday he was hopeful there would be ‘good news in a matter of days, not weeks’.
The Prime Minister today signalled his intention to approve the agreement hammered out with Brussels as soon as Monday, despite furious opposition from Tory eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab today told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday he was hopeful there would be ‘good news in a matter of days, not weeks’.
In words that could be seen as a snub to Mr Johnson, who campaigned for the 2019 election under the slogan ‘get Brexit done’, Mr Sunak today told the Sunday Times: ‘There’s unfinished business on Brexit and I want to get the job done.’
Charles’s visit to Berlin and Paris next month – his first overseas trip as monarch – is being seen as a charm offensive as the Prime Minister tries to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol with Brussels.
But some senior Tories last night accused their leader of exploiting the Royal Family for his short-term political ends, amid growing party infighting over the post-Brexit talks.
Mr Sunak said he was hopeful of a ‘positive outcome’ in the talks with the European Union as Westminster braced for a new-look protocol to be unveiled.
The British leader is keen to ensure the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is on side with his final agreement as he looks to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland.
The DUP is refusing to take part in Stormont’s cross-community devolved government alongside Sinn Fein in protest at the impact the Brexit treaty is having on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The party has issued seven tests that Mr Sunak’s pact will have to meet in order to win its backing, including addressing what it calls the ‘democratic deficit’ of Northern Ireland being subject to EU rules while not having a say on them.
The PM pledged ‘anything that we do will tick all of those boxes’ in terms of Unionist concerns.
A protocol deal has looked close to being announced for almost a week.
And after No 10 said ‘good progress’ was made during a Friday call between the Prime Minister and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, a breakthrough seemed imminent.
The PM was accused of entangling the King in toxic Brexit politics by sending him on a controversial tour to ‘schmooze’ EU nations.
However, a plan for Ms von der Leyen to travel to Britain on Saturday to meet Mr Sunak and then have afternoon tea with the King at Windsor Castle was scrapped on Friday evening.
Downing Street has since said that ‘intensive’ discussions remain underway between London and Brussels.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar said on Saturday that talks between the UK and the EU were ‘inching towards conclusion’ as he called on all sides to ‘go the extra mile’ to sign off on negotiations.
What is the Brexit row about and what has been the impact on Northern Ireland?
The UK and the EU have been engaged in substantive negotiations over the workings of the Northern Ireland Protocol of the original withdrawal agreement that allowed the UK to leave the EU.
It was designed to ensure the free movement of goods across the Irish land border with Ulster after Brexit.
Rather than being an internal EU line between two countries, with Brexit it became a border between the bloc and a third party country with different customs and trade rules.
In any other cases it would be solved simply by creating a ‘hard’ border – physical checks on vehicles and people travelling between the two.
But the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence in 1998, expressly prohibits a return to such checkpoints on the island of Ireland.
To get around this the protocol instead created economic barriers on trade being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
It has proven to be deeply unpopular with unionists, who claim it has weakened Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.
Last year the DUP collapsed the powersharing institutions at Stormont in protest at the arrangements. It came as the party was replaced as the largest in the powersharing government by Sinn Fein for the first time.
And the DUP is refusing to back a deal and restart powersharing unless their concerns are realised. They have set seven tests that it must pass to be approved.
The Prime Minister told The Sunday Times that he was continuing to push for a final agreement with the bloc.
‘I’m here all weekend trying to get it done,’ he told the newspaper.
‘We’re giving it everything we’ve got.’
He admitted that there were examples of ‘where it feels that Northern Ireland is not part of the Union’ and that the protocol had ‘unbalanced’ the Good Friday Agreement that helped end the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Citing the example of not being able to apply reforms to alcohol duty in Northern Ireland when he was chancellor – as the protocol dictates that it falls under EU single market rules for duties – Mr Sunak pledged to work to satisfy Unionist demands with any deal he secures.
‘I’m a Conservative, I’m a Brexiteer and I’m a unionist and anything that we do will tick all of those boxes, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to me, let alone anyone else,’ he told The Sunday Times.
Several reports have suggested a deal between the UK and the EU is all but done – with Mr Sunak delaying an announcement until he is confident it will be accepted.
No 10 denies that but reports suggest Mr Sunak has secured concessions that will ease the flow of trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain – a major bugbear for Unionists.
Trusted traders from GB into Northern Ireland will reportedly not need to undergo checks as part of the plans, while VAT rates, taxes and state aid policy will all be set by Westminster rather than Brussels as part of the offer on the table.
The Prime Minister has also reportedly negotiated a means by which the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast will be given pre-legislative scrutiny over new EU laws in a bid to remove the so-called ‘democratic deficit’.
Downing Street will be anxiously waiting for Boris Johnson’s view on the new terms, with the former prime minister recently imploring Mr Sunak not to drop his Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would unilaterally overwrite parts of the treaty.
The Sunday Times reported that Mr Johnson, called to back what Mr Sunak comes back with in order to appease the White House, replied saying: ‘F*** the Americans.’
A source close to Mr Johnson told PA: ‘This was a jocular conversation in the chamber that someone evidently misunderstood.
‘That is not the sort of language he would use.’
Fresh speculation about a new pact comes after Downing Street came in for criticism for the proposed meeting between EU leader Ms von der Leyen and the King.
It is said that No 10 envisaged branding Mr Sunak’s deal the ‘Windsor Agreement’ if the German politician had been content to sign off on a deal while in Britain.
Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP, accused the Prime Minister of ‘dragging the King into a hugely controversial political issue’.
A UK Government source said it would not have been improper for the King to have met a visiting European leader.
The source told PA news agency it was ‘wrong to suggest the King would be involved in anything remotely political’.
Buckingham Palace would not comment.
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